The state of citizen science in Ukraine

We had initially assumed that the concept of “citizen science” — or indeed “civilian science” — was not widely known in Ukraine. However, the issue proved to be purely terminological. International citizen science platforms, such as iNaturalist or GBIF, are popular among amateur scientists and environmental activists in Ukraine. In 2024, the Science at Risk initiative published its White Book for Citizen Science in Ukraine, which summarised the pre-war citizen science projects and their new wartime outlook.

Numerous local projects have developed in Ukraine under the umbrella of “civic environmental monitoring”. Save Dnipro, an environmental monitoring and advocacy organisation, is an example of a civic initiative that has made it to the national scale and now closely cooperates with the government in environmental policymaking. Another group, Stop Poisoning Kryvyi Rih, has developed civic water monitoring protocols and tested local sources in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast for their suitability as an emergency water source during the war. Elsewhere, the Dovkola Network of citizen science developed its Green Book of Environmental Monitoring in Ukraine. Importantly, it is felt that citizen science has a considerable, and still quite untapped potential, for countering misinformation and establishing environmental truths.

Citizen science’s potential role in investigating environmental crimes is also relevant and increasingly under the spotlight. However, it is still limited by procedural constraints, the admissibility of evidence and lack of case law in most jurisdictions. The Formosa case in Texas, where the judge found a petrochemical company liable for violating the US Clean Water Act on the basis of evidence collected by the civic group, is an important example of citizen-driven data supporting litigation.

Russia’s war against Ukraine has provided an impetus for new citizen science initiatives. The most notable ones are led by professional environmentalists or involve cooperation with academia, and try to support investigative authorities in collecting evidence of environmental crimes. The Ukrainian Scientific Centre for the Ecology of the Sea and the Let’s Do It Ukraine youth organisation joined water and sediment sampling efforts on the Black Sea coast after the Kakhovka Dam breach, with the data made available to the investigative authorities.

To date, the GROMADA project has engaged a wide range of Ukrainian citizen science practitioners and activists, as well as lawyers working on accountability issues, as it has explored their needs and their perceptions of citizen science in the context of the war. The war itself has created important challenges for civic monitoring. Access to many government data portals is closed, routine environmental inspections are not taking place and baseline data is often unavailable. Importantly, evidence collected by citizen science initiatives within a criminal investigation must remain confidential during the pre-trial phase, limiting the possibility of informing communities about the extent of harm and any risks it may have generated. Ensuring communities’ right to access information may require alternative ways of organising this work, together with dedicated funding.